Developing an iPad App: Step Six

The Prisoner of Carrot Castle © 2011

Haven't heard from me in a while about the app progress, but rest assured things are moving ahead like gang busters. The work has been heavily concentrated on the illustrations, Kate working hard at painting each scene. And next month my uber illustrator is moving to Vancouver where her husband works. Kate and the boys are very excited to be together as a family again.

Step Six:
A. Illustrate Each Scene
All the scenes for the book and the title page have been colored. What do you think of the title page? Some of the scenes were adjusted as Kate moved through the story scenes. You saw some of the gorgeous scenes in Developing an iPad App: Step Five.

B. Build the App Pages and Functions
Plugging all the colored scenes from Kate's work into a build of the app, Nur has provided a web location for us to download the progressive builds onto our iPads. That allows us to test things and give him feedback. He's experimenting with page turning styles, built and debugged one of the games and laid-out the extended scene where the accelerometer will be used. Are those teasers enough for you?

C. Begin Foley Work & Plan for Marketing

I have my hands full as I figure out how to put the sound together. There's narration for each scene, music that plays throughout the story (with an off/on button) and sound affects that happen either as a one-off (happening once during narration) event, or when a spot on the screen is touched usually involving animation.

Nur's job is to make it all work, but I need to get all the sound files for him to insert. A good friend has offered his professional sound studio to do the sound work. Sound a bit overwhelming?

Then there's marketing. I need to create a marketing program to introduce and get the market buzz going about the app. I'm convinced the app will sell itself, but the rub is people need to know its out there in the sea of millions of iPad apps.

Just a few things I'll be doing:

• Set-up Fan Page on Facebook
• Look into targeted Facebook ads
• Send out app to reviewers
• Send out press kits to media

Marketing gurus out there, what else do I need to do?

BTW, the production company for The Prisoner of Carrot Castle is called Purple Carrot Books. Did you know that carrots were originally purple? The dark-colored carrots are making a comeback. Give them a try if you see them in your local market.

It's getting exciting, isn't it?

What is it you'd like to know about building an iPad app? Scroll down and leave a comment.